Maria Bethânia, Ao Vivo 1970: Samba de Roda/Marinheiro Só

Wow, I'm really sorry for the lag experienced this week... I'm back now, and I'll be back to the two songs a week pace that I had been good at keeping to up until recently. It's been an exciting bit of time for the blog, as it was mentioned in O-Dub's Soul Sides a couple of weeks ago, and as a result traffic has gone up. Just a month ago I was touting the 100th visitor to the site. Now it stands at over 2000, so keep it up...

As for this week's pick, I bring you a track from Caetano's little sister, Maria Bethânia, a legendary songstress who's rise came in the late 1960's, paralelling the Tropicalia movement that Veloso, Gilberto Gil and other colleagues were engaged in, but that Bethânia refused to join out of a desire to avoid the political sphere (for more information, definitely check out Christopher Dunn's Brutality Garden, probably the best English book on the Tropicalia movement around).

This week's tracks come from a great live album from 1970. Bethânia's voice has changed quite a bit as her stylistic tastes have changed as well, but certainly her almost contralto timbre and pitch make her voice as distinct as anyone's around. Here, in her early work, you can hear the more youthful, more effeminite delivery and tone and her career transitions reflect that of of Joni Mitchell's career (though not quite so dramatic).

Now, by request, some information about the song itself:

Samba de Roda is a style of samba particular to the Northeast, specifically Bahia. It is a slower, more relaxed version of samba, though it is not exactly reflected in the song. My guess is that the song is an updated version of an old samba tune, reinterpreted by her and the band. Marinheiro So simply means "Lone Sailor," though I'm not exactly sure about the lyrics themselves.

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